+
upworthy
More

After Cannes turned away women wearing flats, actress Rashida Jones responded with her own rule.

It's 2015 and I cannes't believe that the Cannes Film Festival thought enforcing this shoe policy was a good idea.

The Cannes Film Festival found itself in a bit of hot water last week when several women were refused entry to a film premiere.

They weren't turned away because they were drunk, or disorderly, or causing a scene.

It wasn't because they didn't have tickets or weren't supposed to be there in the first place.


In fact, one of the women turned away was the wife of director Asif Kapadia whose documentary about Amy Winehouse premiered at the festival.


No, it wasn't any of those reasons. These women were turned away because they weren't wearing ... heels?

As Andreas Wiseman reported over at ScreenDaily:

"In a bad PR move for the push for gender equality, a handful of women in their 50s were turned away from the screening of Todd Haynes' competition entry Carol [the film's feminist appeal further ironising the shut-out] on Sunday night after being told the height of their smart footwear didn't pass muster.

Multiple guests, some older with medical conditions, were denied access to the anticipated world-premiere screening for wearing rhinestone flats."

That medical condition, by the way? One of the women turned away was film producer Valeria Richter who has part of her left foot amputated. It is not actually possible for her to balance in heels.

So, before you ask how the hell was this even enforced, let's ask ourselves a larger question: How is it 2015 and we still have rules like this?

Did someone check to make sure actresses Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara (pictured below at the same premiere where the other women were turned away) weren't secretly hiding a pair of rhinestone flats beneath their fashionable gowns? For all we know they both wore wooden clogs or fluffy slippers and no one was the wiser (the horror!).

Who knows what kind of footwear is hiding under those gowns? More importantly, why should it matter? Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images.

On Twitter, Melissa Cole started the hashtag #showmeyourflats as a way of responding to the controversy.


While other Twitter users provided a little perspective:


And, of course, after facing much criticism from celebrities like Bette Midler...


...and actress Emily Blunt, who was backed up by British national treasure Stephen Fry...

Cannes clarified its policy saying that heel height was never part of its dress code rules to begin with ... but also that the festival's hosts were reminded to enforce it.

It was very confusing. Read for yourself:

"Regarding the dress code for the red carpet screenings, rules have not changed throughout the years (Tuxedo, formal dress for Gala screenings) and there is no specific mention about the height of the women's heels as well as for men's. Thus, in order to make sure that this rule is respected, the festival's hosts and hostesses were reminded of it."

Thierry Fremaux, the festival's director, was much clearer when he apologized and conceded the policy was wrong saying, "there was perhaps a small moment of over-zealousness [in the enforcement of the black tie dress code]."

Not everyone is so quick to forgive and forget though.

In a recent appearance on "The Nightly Show," actress Rashida Jones dropped the mic on Cannes with a rule of her own.

@rashidajones on women wearing flats being turned away from the Cannes red carpet. #NightlyShow
A photo posted by The Nightly Show (@thenightlyshow) on

YES. YES. YES. Brilliant.

I'd like to sarcastically thank Cannes for the fantastic reminder that sexism can bubble up in the weirdest ways.

And I'd like to sincerely thank Rashida Jones for taking a "Cannes"-do attitude to a "Cannes"-don't dress code and giving people everywhere the best line ever for responding to ridiculous dress codes.

True

Making new friends as an adult is challenging. While people crave meaningful IRL connections, it can be hard to know where to find them. But thanks to one Facebook Group, meeting your new best friends is easier than ever.

Founded in 2018, NYC Brunch Squad brings together hundreds of people who come as strangers and leave as friends through its in-person events.

“Witnessing the transformative impact our community has on the lives of our members is truly remarkable. We provide the essential support and connections needed to thrive amid the city's chaos,” shares Liza Rubin, the group’s founder.

Despite its name, the group doesn’t just do brunch. They also have book clubs, seasonal parties, and picnics, among other activities.

NYC Brunch Squad curates up to 10 monthly events tailored to the specific interests of its members. Liza handles all the details, taking into account different budgets and event sizes – all people have to do is show up.

“We have members who met at our events and became friends and went on to embark on international journeys to celebrate birthdays together. We have had members get married with bridesmaids by their sides who were women they first connected with at our events. We’ve had members decide to live together and become roommates,” Liza says.

Members also bond over their passion for giving back to their community. The group has hosted many impact-driven events, including a “Picnic with Purpose” to create self-care packages for homeless shelters and recently participated in the #SquadSpreadsJoy challenge. Each day, the 100 members participating receive random acts of kindness to complete. They can also share their stories on the group page to earn extra points. The member with the most points at the end wins a free seat at the group's Friendsgiving event.

Keep ReadingShow less
Democracy

This Map Reveals The True Value Of $100 In Each State

Your purchasing power can swing by 30% from state to state.

Image by Tax Foundation.

Map represents the value of 100 dollars.

As the cost of living in large cities continues to rise, more and more people are realizing that the value of a dollar in the United States is a very relative concept. For decades, cost of living indices have sought to address and benchmark the inconsistencies in what money will buy, but they are often so specific as to prevent a holistic picture or the ability to "browse" the data based on geographic location.

The Tax Foundation addressed many of these shortcomings using the most recent (2015) Bureau of Economic Analysis data to provide a familiar map of the United States overlaid with the relative value of what $100 is "worth" in each state. Granted, going state-by-state still introduces a fair amount of "smoothing" into the process — $100 will go farther in Los Angeles than in Fresno, for instance — but it does provide insight into where the value lies.

Keep ReadingShow less
Family

Woman bakes cheeky curse word pies for her grandma and it becomes a quirky holiday tradition

2023's pie is an homage to her favorite word to use while stuck in traffic.

Canva

You never know where a holiday tradition will come from.

Tried-and-true holiday traditions certainly have their merit, but there’s something quite special, magical even, about discovering personal rituals that commemorate one’s unique life. In my household, for instance, nothing quite rings in the Christmas spirit like sipping my partner’s delicious coquito and putting up a cardboard gingerbread house for my cats.

The beauty of creating customized holiday traditions is that they can be as festive, sentimental, or as silly as you want them to be. And you never know how one small moment can become the catalyst for a tradition that sparks joy year after year.

For Jess Lydon, that tradition is baking expletive-laden pies for Thanksgiving. (This is your profanity warning—the images below contain swear words.)

Keep ReadingShow less
Education

3,700-year-old Babylonian stone tablet gets translated, changes history

They were doing trigonometry 1500 years before the Greeks.

via UNSW

Dr. Daniel Mansfield and his team at the University of New South Wales in Australia have just made an incredible discovery. While studying a 3,700-year-old tablet from the ancient civilization of Babylon, they found evidence that the Babylonians were doing something astounding: trigonometry!

Most historians have credited the Greeks with creating the study of triangles' sides and angles, but this tablet presents indisputable evidence that the Babylonians were using the technique 1,500 years before the Greeks ever were.

Keep ReadingShow less

Peter Bence's piano cover of "Africa" by Toto

Peter Bence’s performance of “Africa” by Toto has over 17 million views on YouTube because of his creative reimagining of the song and, well, just about everyone loves “Africa.”

Bence is a Hungarian composer and producer who has become a viral sensation for his Michael Jackson, Queen, Sia, and Beatles covers. He has over 1.1 million followers on YouTube and has toured the globe, playing in more than 40 countries across four continents.

His performance of “Africa'' is unique because it opens with him creating a rhythm track and looping it by strategically tapping the piano and rubbing its strings to create the sound of shakers and congo drums.

Keep ReadingShow less
Joy

Family posts a very chill note to neighbors explaining why their dog is on the roof

“We appreciate your concern but please do not knock on our door.."

via Reddit

Meet Huckleberry the dog.

If you were taking a stroll through a quiet neighborhood and happened to catch a glance of this majestic sight, you might bat an eye. You might do a double take. If you were (somewhat understandably) concerned about this surprising roof-dog's welfare, you might even approach the homeowners to tell them, "Uh, I'm not sure if you know...but there's a...dog...on your ROOF."

Well, the family inside is aware that there's often a dog on their roof. It's their pet Golden, Huckleberry, and he just sorta likes it up there.

Keep ReadingShow less
Family

12 hilariously relatable comics about life as a new mom.

Embarrassing stains on your T-shirt, sniffing someone's bum to check if they have pooped, the first time having sex post-giving birth — as a new mom, your life turns upside-down.

All illustrations by Ingebritt ter Veld. Reprinted here with permission.

Some good not so good moments with babies.



Embarrassing stains on your T-shirt, sniffing someone's bum to check if they have pooped, the first time having sex post-giving birth — as a new mom, your life turns upside-down.

Illustrator Ingebritt ter Veld and Corinne de Vries, who works for Hippe-Birth Cards, a webshop for birth announcements, had babies shortly after one another.

Keep ReadingShow less